[26] “On the Breeding of Hunters and Roadsters.” Prize Essay.--Journal of Royal Agricultural Society for 1863. [Illustration: FIG. 21. WALK.] [Illustration: FIG. 22. TROT.] [Illustration: FIG. 23. GALLOP.] In examining figures 21, 22, and 23, the reader will do well to remember that the _near_ fore and hind feet of a horse are the _left_ fore and hind feet; the _off_ fore and hind feet being the _right_ fore and hind feet. The terms _near_ and _off_ are technical expressions, and apply to the left and right sides of the animal. Another point to be attended to in examining the figures in question, is the relation which exists between the fore and hind feet of the near and off sides of the body. In slow walking the near hind foot is planted behind the imprint made by the near fore foot. In rapid walking, on the contrary, the near hind foot is planted from six to twelve or more inches in advance of the imprint made by the near fore foot (fig. 21 represents the distance as eleven inches). In the trot the near hind foot is planted from twelve to eighteen or more inches in advance of the imprint made by the near fore foot (fig. 22 represents the distance as nineteen inches). In the gallop the near hind foot is planted 100 or more inches in advance of the imprint made by the near fore foot (fig. 23 represents the distance as 110-1/2 inches). The distance by which the near hind foot passes the near fore foot in rapid walking, trotting, and galloping, increases in a progressive ratio, and is due in a principal measure to the velocity or momentum acquired by the mass of the horse in rapid motion; the body of the animal carrying forward and planting the limbs at greater relative distances in the trot than in the rapid walk, and in the gallop than in the trot. I have chosen to speak of the near hind and near fore feet, but similar remarks may of course be made of the off hind and off fore feet.